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In Memory of A Friend and Those Who Died in Tiananmen Square on June 4 1989....
- Thread starter AhMeng
- Start date
Wise words from kdrama: "What your eyes see may not be the truth"Skyscrapers and highways for sure, but the totalitarian social controls still exist.
Anyway, let's enjoy a song by Anita Mui for this occasion.
What you think you know may not be correct. You see America as a democracy because people
could, 4-yearly, scribble on a piece of paper and put it into a slot.
You think China is totalitarian and without "true" freedom because you do not have facebook and google. You don't remember how lucky you were at two when your parents curtailed you playing with sharp knifes. Your don't know thankfulness when you parents don't let you access the internet
too freely when you reached 14. Now you are 16/17 - like HK Joshua Wong - and thinks he
is great enough to change history; he was still wearing pampers but his parents were blind
thinking they had a dragon child at hand.
Oh Mankind! Know that you could still be foolish at 60! At 70! And die foolish at 80!
Chan Rasjid
It is easier to think we know than to recognize the many that we do not yet know.
Believe LKY when he said democacy cannot be used to rule chinese society (singapore included), or something to this effect. Look what democracy has done to taiwan. Back in those days taiwan was an asian tiger!
Tiananmen Square anniversary shows Mao's legacy lives on
ANALYSIS BY GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST STAN GRANTUPDATED ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
PHOTO
A propaganda poster from 1968.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
I lived and worked in China for the best part of a decade, and I've never forgotten the words of one of my closest Chinese friends: "No Mao, no China. No Deng, no China open".
He was, of course, referring to the revolutionary Mao Zedong and one of his successors, Deng Xiaoping — two giants of the 20th century.
Mao established Communist Party rule and Deng launched the economic reforms that set China on a course to become perhaps the most powerful nation of the 21st century.
PHOTO Former US president Gerald Ford and his wife with Deng Xiaoping in 1975.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS: COURTESY GERALD R. FORD LIBRARYBrutal history
They were also brutal figures.
Mao has been linked to the deaths of tens of millions of people in the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution. Deng ordered the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, when the army opened fire on its own people.
This week has marked 30 years since that event and I have thought again about my friend and how we never discussed the massacre even though he had lived through it.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 0:30
Tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989
ABC NEWS
The events of '89 have been written out of Chinese history; an entire generation has grown up with no knowledge of it.
PHOTO Photos of the protests do not exist on the Chinese internet.
REUTERS: DOMINIC DUDOUBLEThe power of the party
To understand China is to understand the primacy of the party: No Mao, no China. No Deng, no China open.
In 1989 the Cold War was ending, the Soviet bloc was crumbling and the Berlin Wall was about to come down: it was a watershed year in global history.
American political scientist Francis Fukuyama pronounced "the End of History": the triumph of liberal democracy over communist totalitarianism.
In China, the Communist Party was at the crossroads of its own history.
Reformers wanted to open up and move away from the legacy of Mao.
After Zhao visited the protesters, Deng ordered the crackdown and the army moved in.
PHOTO Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang supported students during their protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989. He was later imprisoned.
64MEMO.COM
Zhao was sacked and placed under house arrest until his death.
The rise of Xi
Watching on was a young party leader in Fujian province, Xi Jinping. Xi is a princeling, a son of the party; his father, one of Mao's revolutionary leaders.
Xi had been schooled in party politics: as a youth, he was banished to the countryside for "re-education" in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s-70s.
His father, Xi Zhongxun, opposed Deng's crackdown and criticised the slaughter of the activists. He was banished from party leadership.
Today, his son Xi Jinping is the most powerful leader China has had since Mao. The Economist magazine has named him the most powerful person on the planet.
PHOTO Xi Jinping is widely viewed inside China, as well as abroad, as the country's most powerful leader since Mao.
AP: MARK SCHIEFELBEIN
He leads a country on the verge of surpassing the United States as the world's biggest economy. It is a country that since the Tiananmen massacre has lifted more than half a billion people out of poverty.
He has sent hundreds of thousands — perhaps a million — ethnic Uighur Muslims to "re-education camps" and confiscated their property.
For Xi, there is no China without the party.
An old speech with new meaning
In the lead-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, a Chinese online media site released a speech that Xi gave in 2013 just after assuming leadership.
It is a fascinating, if disturbing, insight into the man.
PHOTO Xi lives in the shadow of Mao
REUTERS: TYRONE SIU
Xi, lives in the shadow of Mao: "... if at the time of reform Comrade Mao had been completely repudiated, would our party still be standing? Would our country's system of socialism still be standing? And if it was not still standing, what would we have? A world of chaos".
The party's future he says, like its past, is built on sacrifice.
"In our party's 90 years of history, one generation of Communists after another did not hesitate to shed their blood and lay down their lives for the independence and liberation of the people."
The speech shows a man distrustful of the West, indeed a paranoid leader jumping at shadows.
"Hostile forces at home and abroad often write essays on the history of the Chinese revolution or of New China, doing all in their power to smear and vilify that era. Their fundamental purpose is to confuse the hearts of the people. They aim to incite them into overthrowing both the Communist Party of China's leadership and the socialist system of our country."
Xi is a deeply ideological figure, in an ideological battle with the West. He is pledged to defend socialism "with Chinese characteristics" and rejects Western liberal democracy.
He is a leader with his enemy firmly in view.
PHOTO Xi is an ideological figure in an ideological battle with the West.
REUTERS: CARLOS BARRIA
"We must have a deep appreciation for capitalism's ability to self-correct, and a full, objective assessment of the real long-term advantages that the developed Western nations have in the economic, technological, and military spheres. Then we must diligently prepare for a long period of cooperation and of conflict between these two social systems in each of these domains."
His China dream is for a "harmonious society", yet he is prepared to achieve it with force.
He wants China to be engaged in the world, but on its terms.
And now, 30 years after the massacre at Tiananmen, my friend may have a new saying: "No Mao, no China. No Deng, no China open. No Xi, no China future."
Stan Grant is the ABC's global affairs analyst.
POSTED ABOUT 9 HOURS AGO
ANALYSIS BY GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST STAN GRANTUPDATED ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
PHOTO
A propaganda poster from 1968.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
I lived and worked in China for the best part of a decade, and I've never forgotten the words of one of my closest Chinese friends: "No Mao, no China. No Deng, no China open".
He was, of course, referring to the revolutionary Mao Zedong and one of his successors, Deng Xiaoping — two giants of the 20th century.
Mao established Communist Party rule and Deng launched the economic reforms that set China on a course to become perhaps the most powerful nation of the 21st century.
PHOTO Former US president Gerald Ford and his wife with Deng Xiaoping in 1975.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS: COURTESY GERALD R. FORD LIBRARYBrutal history
They were also brutal figures.
Mao has been linked to the deaths of tens of millions of people in the Great Famine and the Cultural Revolution. Deng ordered the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, when the army opened fire on its own people.
This week has marked 30 years since that event and I have thought again about my friend and how we never discussed the massacre even though he had lived through it.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 0:30
Tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989
ABC NEWS
The events of '89 have been written out of Chinese history; an entire generation has grown up with no knowledge of it.
Much discussion this week has rightly focused on the student pro-democracy activists, yet what was truly taking place was a struggle not just on the streets, but inside the closed rooms of the Communist Party politburo.
PHOTO Photos of the protests do not exist on the Chinese internet.
REUTERS: DOMINIC DUDOUBLEThe power of the party
To understand China is to understand the primacy of the party: No Mao, no China. No Deng, no China open.
In 1989 the Cold War was ending, the Soviet bloc was crumbling and the Berlin Wall was about to come down: it was a watershed year in global history.
American political scientist Francis Fukuyama pronounced "the End of History": the triumph of liberal democracy over communist totalitarianism.
In China, the Communist Party was at the crossroads of its own history.
Reformers wanted to open up and move away from the legacy of Mao.
Hardliners foresaw the Soviet collapse and wanted to double down on authoritarianism; to them, the Tiananmen activists were part of a western plot: counter-revolutionary traitors who must be put down.
Deng Xiaoping as supreme leader straddled the reformers headed by the Chief of the Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang and the old party loyalists led by Premier Li Peng.After Zhao visited the protesters, Deng ordered the crackdown and the army moved in.
PHOTO Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang supported students during their protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989. He was later imprisoned.
64MEMO.COM
Zhao was sacked and placed under house arrest until his death.
The rise of Xi
Watching on was a young party leader in Fujian province, Xi Jinping. Xi is a princeling, a son of the party; his father, one of Mao's revolutionary leaders.
Xi had been schooled in party politics: as a youth, he was banished to the countryside for "re-education" in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s-70s.
His father, Xi Zhongxun, opposed Deng's crackdown and criticised the slaughter of the activists. He was banished from party leadership.
Today, his son Xi Jinping is the most powerful leader China has had since Mao. The Economist magazine has named him the most powerful person on the planet.
PHOTO Xi Jinping is widely viewed inside China, as well as abroad, as the country's most powerful leader since Mao.
AP: MARK SCHIEFELBEIN
He leads a country on the verge of surpassing the United States as the world's biggest economy. It is a country that since the Tiananmen massacre has lifted more than half a billion people out of poverty.
Xi upholds Deng's bargain with the Chinese people: we will make you rich, but we will not make you free.
He has launched a crackdown on human rights; silenced dissidents, targeted lawyers and artists and locked up political rivals.He has sent hundreds of thousands — perhaps a million — ethnic Uighur Muslims to "re-education camps" and confiscated their property.
For Xi, there is no China without the party.
An old speech with new meaning
In the lead-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, a Chinese online media site released a speech that Xi gave in 2013 just after assuming leadership.
It is a fascinating, if disturbing, insight into the man.
PHOTO Xi lives in the shadow of Mao
REUTERS: TYRONE SIU
Xi, lives in the shadow of Mao: "... if at the time of reform Comrade Mao had been completely repudiated, would our party still be standing? Would our country's system of socialism still be standing? And if it was not still standing, what would we have? A world of chaos".
The party's future he says, like its past, is built on sacrifice.
"In our party's 90 years of history, one generation of Communists after another did not hesitate to shed their blood and lay down their lives for the independence and liberation of the people."
The speech shows a man distrustful of the West, indeed a paranoid leader jumping at shadows.
"Hostile forces at home and abroad often write essays on the history of the Chinese revolution or of New China, doing all in their power to smear and vilify that era. Their fundamental purpose is to confuse the hearts of the people. They aim to incite them into overthrowing both the Communist Party of China's leadership and the socialist system of our country."
Xi warns his party: "We must prepare for danger in a time of peace."
Throughout the speech, Xi displays a messianic zeal, indeed using religious language of "faith" and "sacrifice".Xi is a deeply ideological figure, in an ideological battle with the West. He is pledged to defend socialism "with Chinese characteristics" and rejects Western liberal democracy.
He is a leader with his enemy firmly in view.
PHOTO Xi is an ideological figure in an ideological battle with the West.
REUTERS: CARLOS BARRIA
"We must have a deep appreciation for capitalism's ability to self-correct, and a full, objective assessment of the real long-term advantages that the developed Western nations have in the economic, technological, and military spheres. Then we must diligently prepare for a long period of cooperation and of conflict between these two social systems in each of these domains."
No political leader from Canberra to Washington should be under any illusions about Xi and his ambitions for his country.
A vision for the futureHis China dream is for a "harmonious society", yet he is prepared to achieve it with force.
He wants China to be engaged in the world, but on its terms.
How the West manages the rise of China is the political question of our age.
Xi Jinping has altered China's constitution, abolishing two-term presidential limits. He is now "leader for life".And now, 30 years after the massacre at Tiananmen, my friend may have a new saying: "No Mao, no China. No Deng, no China open. No Xi, no China future."
Stan Grant is the ABC's global affairs analyst.
POSTED ABOUT 9 HOURS AGO
berlin wall fell in 1989 or 1988 huh?
In 1989, USA had intervened and invaded many countries. China did not meet such a record.
Tiananmen Square: How memories of the 1989 massacre are secretly passed on in China
ABC'S ASIA PACIFIC NEWSROOMUPDATED WED AT 2:02PM
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
VIDEO 1:10
Tens of thousands gathered in Victoria Park to mourn those killed during the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations.
ABC NEWS
阅读中文版本
It was the summer of 2009 and my journalism lecturer told my class in Beijing that we'd be watching a documentary that day instead of receiving our usual news writing course.
Key points:
There was the famous moment of a lone man confronting a line of tanks, masses of soldiers on the city's streets, and dead civilians lying in pools of blood.
As is the case at all Chinese schools and universities, learning about the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago is definitely not part of the curriculum.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 0:42
Students camp out in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989
ABC NEWS
Discussing the massacre is not officially banned, but doing so can lead to losing your job, being arrested or mysteriously disappearing, and the lecturer was taking a huge risk doing this — so much so that revealing my identity could put people back home at risk.
As a child, we lived by Tiananmen Square in 1989, and before entering the classroom that day, the only time I had heard any mention of it was from my parents who would casually refer to it as a "student riot" or the "June 4 incident", and usually in passing responding to things like me whinging about the traffic.
Memories of Tiananmen Square
On the evening of June 3, 1989, Michael Li was barricaded inside his home, listening to the sound of guns and screams from the streets outside.
"There was no bus running on Chang'an Avenue during the students' riot when you were little — public transport was cancelled," my mother told me.
I, for one, was of the view that this so-called documentary was generally a one-sided piece of Western propaganda that excluded the Chinese point of view and presented the night in a way that bent the truth.
For starters, the documentary was in English and how could Western journalists have evidence of something even we locals didn't have — additionally, journalism school in China teaches that the media in general often tries to manipulate facts in this way.
PHOTO Chinese soldiers began clearing Tiananmen Square of pro-democracy protesters on June 3, 1989.
AP: JEFF WIDENER
"Why did these people from overseas think they knew better than me?" I remember thinking.
When the lecturer returned after roughly under an hour, the main feeling among the students was a mixture of shock but mostly disbelief.
He told us that it was important for us to see and know, without specifying why, calmly demanded that we don't tell anyone about what he just showed us, and proceeded to teach class from that day forward without speaking of it again.
When I got home that night, I asked my parents what exactly a student riot was and what happened during this June 4 incident, but they brushed aside and refused to answer my questions.
After a brief silence, my parents changed the subject, and I got carried away with the conversation.
This is the way the Tiananmen massacre is passed on, remembered and spoken about in China: through the memories of its witnesses, behind closed doors, in code, or in ways that shall not be repeated or named.
'It can't all be true': The pervasiveness of censorship
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 6:21
Former soldier Xiaoming Li says he never fired a shot but is still wracked with guilt
ABC NEWS
It took me a long time before I started to really think about and believe the devastating images I saw on that hot summer day 10 years ago.
Back in 2009, China's Great Firewall was not as impenetrable as it is today, so not long after the class, I began curiously searching "June 4" and "how many were killed during the June 4 incident?" — the answers suggested there may have been a significant death toll, hundreds if not thousands.
It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that my own government had killed its own people and covered it up — growing up, we all knew there was censorship, but didn't fully realise how powerful and pervasive it was.
PHOTO The student-led pro-democracy protests became China's greatest political upheaval since the end of the Cultural Revolution more than a decade earlier.
AP: SADAYUKI MIKAMI
Many of us ended up discovering its existence through unexpected means, with anti-government art installations or pop culture being another important source of knowledge.
For example, recently some fans of Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung Hok-yau discovered the significance of the date after one of his most popular songs — called The Way of Man and written after the massacre — was removed from music streaming platforms in China last year.
"How could the soil of the old world became waves in the sea of blood?" the song's lyrics say, and curious fans immediately search for why the song was censored using VPNs to break through the firewall and get on Google.
PHOTO The student-led rallies were peaceful but as the army advanced some protesters attempted to counter the attack by creating makeshift barricades.
AP: JEFF WIDENER
But as China's censorship mechanisms become increasingly robust, knowledge about the Tiananmen massacre — as well as other politically sensitive issues — is more difficult for ordinary people to acquire.
Well-educated elites in big cities are more likely than people in rural areas to be equipped with the funds and technological know-how to use a VPN.
According to available data, only 4 million people out of China's 800 million internet users regularly get on Google, and at least 1.5 million of those users are based in wealthy regions like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
'The reason I call Australia home'
As news of Bob Hawke's death sweeps through the country, the Chinese-Australian community expresses gratitude towards the Labor legend's promise to allow Chinese students to stay after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
One of the most common ways for young Chinese people to discover the truth about that day is by travelling overseas.
A friend from Hebei province recently told me her memories of seeing practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline banned since 1999 and labelled an "evil cult" by Beijing, holding banners displaying an image of a tank at Tiananmen Square crushing dissent.
At first, she too believed it was the work of "malicious" people trying to disgrace China with lies, and she said it was only after her mother and I confirmed it was the truth that she dropped the idea.
For me, the moment of revelation came three years after watching that documentary in 2012, when I began to work as a journalist in China.
It was only after speaking with trusted colleagues and interviewing sources who saw students killed with their own eyes, that I came to fully believe that a massacre occurred in my country'srecent past.
I realised that, in China, the Tiananmen Square massacre existed in a strange void created by a mix of government censorship and people's fear of repercussions.
It was a massive wake-up call for me about the power of the state and how humans carry and pass on memories.
PHOTO Estimates of the number of casualties range from hundreds to thousands of people.
AP: TERRIL JONES
Read the story in Chinese: 阅读中文版本
POSTED WED AT 3:01AM
SHARE
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RELATED
What happens when you show the tank man photo to young Chinese students?
'Extraordinary' footage shows what really happened in lead-up to Tiananmen massacre
'Consternation, fear and disbelief': Chinese soldier remembers Tiananmen Square massacre
ABC'S ASIA PACIFIC NEWSROOMUPDATED WED AT 2:02PM
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
VIDEO 1:10
Tens of thousands gathered in Victoria Park to mourn those killed during the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations.
ABC NEWS
阅读中文版本
It was the summer of 2009 and my journalism lecturer told my class in Beijing that we'd be watching a documentary that day instead of receiving our usual news writing course.
Key points:
- There is no official ban on discussing the massacre but it can lead to repercussions
- Youth find out about the massacre through pop culture, using VPNs or even from teachers
- Some have trouble coming to terms with the fact that their government killed its own citizens
"You guys watch it quietly by yourself, I'll be away for a while," the lecturer said, before he pressed play on the projector and walked out of the classroom.
Alone in the room, the students witnessed collections of short films and images of the Tiananmen Square massacre onJune 4, 1989, a date that previously held little or no significance for us.There was the famous moment of a lone man confronting a line of tanks, masses of soldiers on the city's streets, and dead civilians lying in pools of blood.
As is the case at all Chinese schools and universities, learning about the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in and around Tiananmen Square three decades ago is definitely not part of the curriculum.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 0:42
Students camp out in Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989
ABC NEWS
Discussing the massacre is not officially banned, but doing so can lead to losing your job, being arrested or mysteriously disappearing, and the lecturer was taking a huge risk doing this — so much so that revealing my identity could put people back home at risk.
As a child, we lived by Tiananmen Square in 1989, and before entering the classroom that day, the only time I had heard any mention of it was from my parents who would casually refer to it as a "student riot" or the "June 4 incident", and usually in passing responding to things like me whinging about the traffic.
Memories of Tiananmen Square
On the evening of June 3, 1989, Michael Li was barricaded inside his home, listening to the sound of guns and screams from the streets outside.
"There was no bus running on Chang'an Avenue during the students' riot when you were little — public transport was cancelled," my mother told me.
"You should appreciate how much better Beijing's traffic is these days instead of complaining."
But for many of the students, it was the first time they'd ever heard of the night let alone seen footage of such a massacre in our very own backyard, and it was startling with many students even shedding tears.I, for one, was of the view that this so-called documentary was generally a one-sided piece of Western propaganda that excluded the Chinese point of view and presented the night in a way that bent the truth.
For starters, the documentary was in English and how could Western journalists have evidence of something even we locals didn't have — additionally, journalism school in China teaches that the media in general often tries to manipulate facts in this way.
PHOTO Chinese soldiers began clearing Tiananmen Square of pro-democracy protesters on June 3, 1989.
AP: JEFF WIDENER
"Why did these people from overseas think they knew better than me?" I remember thinking.
When the lecturer returned after roughly under an hour, the main feeling among the students was a mixture of shock but mostly disbelief.
He told us that it was important for us to see and know, without specifying why, calmly demanded that we don't tell anyone about what he just showed us, and proceeded to teach class from that day forward without speaking of it again.
When I got home that night, I asked my parents what exactly a student riot was and what happened during this June 4 incident, but they brushed aside and refused to answer my questions.
After a brief silence, my parents changed the subject, and I got carried away with the conversation.
This is the way the Tiananmen massacre is passed on, remembered and spoken about in China: through the memories of its witnesses, behind closed doors, in code, or in ways that shall not be repeated or named.
'It can't all be true': The pervasiveness of censorship
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
VIDEO 6:21
Former soldier Xiaoming Li says he never fired a shot but is still wracked with guilt
ABC NEWS
It took me a long time before I started to really think about and believe the devastating images I saw on that hot summer day 10 years ago.
Back in 2009, China's Great Firewall was not as impenetrable as it is today, so not long after the class, I began curiously searching "June 4" and "how many were killed during the June 4 incident?" — the answers suggested there may have been a significant death toll, hundreds if not thousands.
It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that my own government had killed its own people and covered it up — growing up, we all knew there was censorship, but didn't fully realise how powerful and pervasive it was.
"It can't be all true," I reassured myself.
Today, even the phrase "Tiananmen massacre" remains a mind-blowing concept for my generation, who grew up consuming the heavily censored content produced in Communist China.PHOTO The student-led pro-democracy protests became China's greatest political upheaval since the end of the Cultural Revolution more than a decade earlier.
AP: SADAYUKI MIKAMI
Many of us ended up discovering its existence through unexpected means, with anti-government art installations or pop culture being another important source of knowledge.
For example, recently some fans of Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung Hok-yau discovered the significance of the date after one of his most popular songs — called The Way of Man and written after the massacre — was removed from music streaming platforms in China last year.
"How could the soil of the old world became waves in the sea of blood?" the song's lyrics say, and curious fans immediately search for why the song was censored using VPNs to break through the firewall and get on Google.
PHOTO The student-led rallies were peaceful but as the army advanced some protesters attempted to counter the attack by creating makeshift barricades.
AP: JEFF WIDENER
But as China's censorship mechanisms become increasingly robust, knowledge about the Tiananmen massacre — as well as other politically sensitive issues — is more difficult for ordinary people to acquire.
Well-educated elites in big cities are more likely than people in rural areas to be equipped with the funds and technological know-how to use a VPN.
According to available data, only 4 million people out of China's 800 million internet users regularly get on Google, and at least 1.5 million of those users are based in wealthy regions like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
'The reason I call Australia home'
As news of Bob Hawke's death sweeps through the country, the Chinese-Australian community expresses gratitude towards the Labor legend's promise to allow Chinese students to stay after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
One of the most common ways for young Chinese people to discover the truth about that day is by travelling overseas.
A friend from Hebei province recently told me her memories of seeing practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline banned since 1999 and labelled an "evil cult" by Beijing, holding banners displaying an image of a tank at Tiananmen Square crushing dissent.
At first, she too believed it was the work of "malicious" people trying to disgrace China with lies, and she said it was only after her mother and I confirmed it was the truth that she dropped the idea.
For me, the moment of revelation came three years after watching that documentary in 2012, when I began to work as a journalist in China.
It was only after speaking with trusted colleagues and interviewing sources who saw students killed with their own eyes, that I came to fully believe that a massacre occurred in my country'srecent past.
I realised that, in China, the Tiananmen Square massacre existed in a strange void created by a mix of government censorship and people's fear of repercussions.
It was a massive wake-up call for me about the power of the state and how humans carry and pass on memories.
PHOTO Estimates of the number of casualties range from hundreds to thousands of people.
AP: TERRIL JONES
Read the story in Chinese: 阅读中文版本
POSTED WED AT 3:01AM
SHARE
Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp
RELATED
What happens when you show the tank man photo to young Chinese students?
'Extraordinary' footage shows what really happened in lead-up to Tiananmen massacre
'Consternation, fear and disbelief': Chinese soldier remembers Tiananmen Square massacre
There's some article I read that said the tiananmen incident incoculated China against civil revolution, or something to that effect.
Arguably the stability and control the party gained after that incident gave them the confidence to transform the economy into a free market one.
If anything China is adopting a hybrid system similar to singapore: politically socialist but economically capitalist.
They will retain social control of the people but increasingly allow the free markets to meet the materials needs of the people and country. Some semblance of democracy will emerge, perhaps like voting for local mayor's.
Give them time. A 100 years is a short period for Chinese history. Tiananmen should be remembered and debated openly by the Chinese scholars. The sacrifice of the students in the pursuit of economic glory should be memorialized.
Berlin wall fell after Tiananmen incident in 1989. Thereafter, the strongest economy emerged in Europe.
So there was a lot of head-banging and regrets among the chinese during that era.
Last edited:
The most heartbreaking and cruel suppression was not Tiananmen Incident but Gwangju Uprising in modern Asian History. Hundreds killed and thousands of casualties. Unlike Tiananmen Incident, US was the wrong side during the Gwangju Uprising. Democratization of Korea followed suit and today, South Korea is an economic powerhouse in the developed world.
Minjung Memorial Tower is a major site of commemoration at the May 18 National Cemetery, the burial site for the victims adjacent to the 5.18 Memorial Hall where dioramas and a graphic documentary help visitors understand the uprising. Each of the graves has a picture of the victim, many of whom were still in their teens.
Minjung Memorial Tower is a major site of commemoration at the May 18 National Cemetery, the burial site for the victims adjacent to the 5.18 Memorial Hall where dioramas and a graphic documentary help visitors understand the uprising. Each of the graves has a picture of the victim, many of whom were still in their teens.
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